john kerry, of course, will be taking over there from outgoing secretary hillary clinton. john kerry joked today that he had big heels to fill as the new secretary of state. president obama's second major nominee to face a confirmation hearing was another national security pick, the former senator chuck hagel. his confirmation hearings for defense secretary were not a breeze. the vote on his nomination has not yet happened. republicans in the senate are now hinting that they might even filibuster chuck hagel's nomination for defense, which of course sounds normal, because, you know, it seems like republicans filibuster anything now. but in fact that would not be normal that would be unprecedented if they do it. the reason republicans are even considering doing this unprecedented thing is because they cannot block chuck hagel's nomination by normal means. even though the republicans have persuaded lots of the senators on their own side to oppose his nomination, they are a minority. and they have not persuaded any democrats to oppose him at all, at least none that have come